This grant request is for two hundred (200) Travel Awards of $1,000 each for a total of $200,000, for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members to attend the 12th International Congress of Immunology (ICI) to be held July 18-23, 2004 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada under the auspices of IUIS (International Union of Immunology Societies) and FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies). This application request funds for approximately 40% of the Travel Award budget. Additional funding is either already secured or is being requested from institutional, charitable and industrial sponsors. The ICI scientific program consists of symposia, poster sessions and workshops subdivided into 5 themes: Immune Regulation, Host Resistance, Immunogenetics, Immunodiagnosis and Immunointervention. The Congress will provide the most up-to-date information on the basic and applied advances in immunology research through the mix of 10 Keynote Lectures, 5 Future Challenges sessions, 35 Symposia, 150 Interactive Workshops (Minisymposia) and 10 Poster Sessions (each with approximately 500 abstracts). The program also includes topics such as public information about immunology, transfer of research discoveries in immunology from the bench to bedside to community, technology transfer in immunology from university to industry and social and ethical issues. Several innovations will make the ICI an effective forum for dissemination, including: effective abstract submission and retrieval, assurance of up-to-date coverage of advances in immunology research, mission-oriented sessions, creation of a hyper-media library of posters using a digital versatile disc technology, and structured opportunities to facilitate effective interaction between university and industry. The integration of the ICI with the annual FOCIS conference will promote translation of fundamental research to new diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic approaches to immune-mediated inflammatory disorders. Trainees and new investigators will be offered ample opportunity to understand where and how breakthroughs in basic science of immunology are coming into the clinic. The expected Congress attendance is 10,000 participants, 70% from the USA and the remainder from Canada, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. We estimate that 50% of our attendees will be young investigators. The confirmed speakers and symposia/minisymposia chairs come from 20 countries, 53% being from the USA. Twenty % of our Congress Faculty are women and 10% are either members of visible minorities or come from the homelands of US and Canadian minorities.
